Not fare: new myki card validators lack account balance information

Deborah Gough

New myki card validators will not tell passengers what fare they have just been charged nor their account balance.

Machines currently display a fare and account balance as passengers touch on and off to validate their ticket, allowing them to monitor their myki use as they go.

But new machines will now only tell passengers whether they have successfully touched on and off.

Mitcham, Springvale and Richmond stations will be the first to have the new gates, which will be progressively installed across the network.

Public Transport Users Association president Tony Morton said passengers would be distressed when they discovered they could no longer instantly monitor their fares and balance.

''I know that people do like to be able to get that feedback when they touch on their myki,'' Dr Morton said.

Advertisement

''People like to know when it is getting low, so they can tell when they need to top up or how much it is costing them as they go,'' he said.

The new machines, which have red paddle turnstiles, will give passengers a tick or cross depending on whether they have been successful. They are said to operate much faster than existing machines.

Dr Morton said Victorians had an expectation that they would get a warning when their card balance was low - as with an e-tag, which will beep three times when a balance falls below a level acceptable to the operator, and four times if out of credit.

''There is no need to reinvent the wheel here,'' Dr Morton said.

He said passengers needed a way to know when they should top up their account.

Dr Morton said a beep function on myki validators was used to tell whether a passenger paid a full fare or a discounted fair, but this should be adapted to tell passengers when their account was low.

''Knowing whether a fare is a discount or not is of no use to passengers,'' he said.

He said one of the only ways passengers will be able to know their myki balance is by going online, which is not acceptable to everyone. Passengers could use myki readers, but these are not always available and some passengers have mistaken the readers for validators in the past.

Mitcham is due to get the new validators on May 5, Springvale on May 12 and Richmond on a date to be fixed.

A PTV spokesman said the new myki machines would be equipped to read 73 cards a minute while the older generation machines only scanned 52 cards a minute.

"The new myki gates are more robust and can be installed outside in the elements, are quicker, meaning more people can pass through the barriers, and are similar to existing gates so spare parts are common," he said.

He said the screens would give information like "low balance" and a "negative balance" but not the dollar value left on the card. He said it would also show if a card was expired, and whether it had been properly validated.

"While these gates no longer display fare charge or balance information, customers can get this information at the blue myki checks and myki machines at every station," he said.

"Customers can also obtain this information any time from their free online account," he said.